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Attorney Oscar C. Carr III is the newest Shelby County Chancery Court judge. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Thursday, Oct. 16, his appointment of Carr to the vacancy on the court created when Chancellor Kenny Armstrong was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals earlier this year.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam announced Thursday, Oct. 16, his appointment of Carr to the vacancy on the court created when Chancellor Kenny Armstrong was appointed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals earlier this year.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam swore in a new Tennessee Supreme Court justice and two state Appeals Court judges during a busy Friday, Sept. 19, visit to Memphis that also included getting a flu shot.

Haslam swore in Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Holly Kirby of Memphis at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law before a group of 300 people that included former Gov. Don Sundquist, who appointed Kirby to the court of appeals during his two terms as governor.

The Democratic Shelby County commissioner considered a swing vote on controversial items during his first term on the commission won the chairmanship of the body Monday, Sept. 8, for the next year in a decidedly non-party line vote – at least in terms of those in his own party voting for him.

As Memphis Democrats gathered for various campaign efforts last weekend, County Commission candidate Martavius Jones received a lot of condolences on his loss in the Democratic primary for commission District 10, and rival candidate Reginald Milton got a lot of congratulations.

Until Tuesday, no one was running for the District 7 seat on the Shelby County Schools board. No one had pulled a qualifying petition from the Shelby County Election Commission until just two days before the filing deadline for candidates on the August election ballot.

Shelby County Election Commissioners could complete the ballot for the May Shelby County primary elections Wednesday, March 5, by deciding on challenges to the residency of three candidates in the Democratic primaries.

With two weeks to the filing deadline for candidates in the May Shelby County primary elections and two months to the deadline for those in the August state and federal primaries and county nonpartisan elections, the fields have solidified enough that some political players are weighing their prospects for a late entry before the filing deadlines.

If ever the political axiom of needing a scorecard to keep up with the players applied to an election cycle, it would be the set of three elections in 2014 across Shelby County.

The middle election of the three – the August ballot of county general elections and state and federal primary elections – is expected to be one of the longest in the county’s political history, if not the longest.

As harsh as the criticism has been of the way the Shelby County Election Commission conducted elections in 2012, no one, including those who filed two Chancery Court lawsuits over the results, have said or presented proof it was intentional.

When Shelby County Commissioners said farewell to one of their own this week at the commission’s last meeting of 2013, it was the latest in a series of changes that will remake the 13-member body by this time next year.

If the Shelby County Election Commission sets a new election date for the District 4 countywide school board seat sometime this year, it will be the 10th special election in Shelby County in what was supposed to be an off-election year for much of the county.

For a second time, results in the August 2012 elections have been successfully contested in court.

Shelby County Chancellor Kenny Armstrong, in a long-awaited ruling issued Monday, Aug. 19, ordered the Shelby County Election Commission to conduct a new election for countywide school board District 4.

The Judicial Nominating Commission had a busy last few days before it went into limbo last week.

The commission sent Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam two slates for each of the three appeals court vacancies to come a year and two months from now when three appellate court judges opt not to run for re-election and end their terms.

The Tennessee Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, has ruled the old Memphis City Schools board acted improperly in 2007 when it fired a tenured teacher who took extended sick leave without written charges or a termination hearing.

The Tennessee Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, has ruled the old Memphis City Schools board acted improperly in 2007 when it fired a tenured teacher who took extended sick leave without written charges or a termination hearing.

Some early voters in Shelby County are snapping pictures of their completed ballots with their phones to verify their votes. Other voters are delaying their trip to the polls because they anticipate problems in the opening days of the voting period that ends Nov. 1.

The Shelby County Election Commission has identified 837 disputed votes in the Aug. 2 election for the District 4 countywide school board seat.

The information disclosed last week as part of a legal challenge of the results in the district race prompted a delay of a trial in the case before Chancellor Kenny Armstrong until some time after the Nov. 6 elections.

Shelby County Commissioners have dropped their appeal in the Chancery Court lawsuit over redistricting and ended the protracted political dispute.

The commission voted 8-5 Monday, Oct. 8, to drop its appeal of the June ruling by Chancellor Arnold Goldin in favor of a new set of district lines that make the five-district, 13-member commission a body of 13 single-member districts with the 2014 elections.

The results of the Aug. 2 election on a Millington sales tax hike were changed Tuesday, Oct. 9, to show the tax hike for a municipal school district was approved by 12 votes instead of losing by three votes.

The results of the Aug. 2 election on a Millington sales tax hike were changed Tuesday, Oct. 9, to show the tax hike for a municipal school district was approved by 12 votes instead of losing by three votes.

Shelby County Elections Administrator Richard Holden has been suspended for three days and put on probation for six months following the suspension because of the way the Aug. 2 elections were conducted.

Shelby County Commissioners elected Republican Mike Ritz the new chairman of the body Monday, July 30, for a one-year term that begins Sept. 1. Democrat Melvin Burgess was chosen as chairman pro tempore for the same one-year term.

Shelby County Commissioners voted down a resolution Monday, July 30, to stop a subpoena by their attorneys in the municipal schools district federal court case.

The resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Terry Roland would have instructed the attorneys arguing the municipal school districts movement is based on an unconstitutional state law to withdraw their subpoena seeking the identities of readers who commented on stories on The Commercial Appeal website. The newspaper is opposing the request.

Two days after the Shelby County Commission delayed a final vote on a redistricing plan, Chancellor Arnold Goldin approved a motion Wednesday, June 13, setting the new redistricting plan and converting the commission to a set of 13 single-member districts.

Two days after the Shelby County Commission delayed a final vote on a redistricing plan, Chancellor Arnold Goldin approved a motion Wednesday, June 13, setting the new redistricting plan and converting the commission to a set of 13 single-member districts.

Shelby County Commissioners will see if they have all 13 commissioners present before they see if there are nine votes to pass a redistricting plan.

Third and final reading of a redistricting ordinance is on the commission’s agenda for Monday, June 11. The commission meeting begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Vasco Smith County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St.

Shelby County Commissioners might take another try at approving a redistricting plan for the commission before Shelby County Chancellor Arnold Goldin decides the court case over the new district boundaries.

By the Shelby County Charter, the Shelby County Commission voted down a redistricting plan Monday, March 12, when the plan up for third and final reading got seven votes – two short of the nine needed.

Shelby County Commission members will start over with their once-a-decade redistricting process Wednesday, Jan. 18, with a committee session and a special meeting of the entire body to pass a plan on the first of three readings.

Shelby County Commission members avoided the topic at least in the public, on-the-record discussions during committee sessions last week.

But the full commission meeting Monday, Jan. 9, could feature the commission’s first formal discussion of a redistricting plan since three commissioners filed suit over the matter in Chancery Court Tuesday, Jan. 3.

Eight Shelby County voters have filed suit in Memphis federal court against Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper, the Shelby County Election Commission and Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett to throw out the requirement that a consolidation charter must pass in two separate votes on the Nov. 2 ballot.

All sides in the legal dispute over the Aug. 5 election results will meet with Chancellor Arnold Goldin Friday to begin wading through a series of motions and ultimately a hearing on the dispute.

Ten candidates who lost in the Aug. 5 county general elections filed two lawsuits – one before the election results were certified and the other after they were certified. Both are before Goldin and are likely to be combined, a decision that is up to Goldin.

A judge has dismissed claims filed this summer by a private citizen against the former president and CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division and two of his attorneys.

That ruling sets the stage for one more unusual turn of events in what’s been a sometimes bitter court fight over a legal settlement the city of Memphis paid this summer to former MLGW head Joseph Lee.

The city of Memphis can switch sides in a lawsuit against the former head of the city-owned utility company in an attempt to recoup money the city paid this summer to that official, a judge decided Tuesday morning.

Memphis City Councilwoman Wanda Halbert has filed complaints with the state disciplinary board for lawyers against Deputy City Attorney Veronica Coleman-Davis and a private attorney working for the city.

Shelby County Chancellor Arnold Goldin has dissolved an order requiring the former president and CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division and his attorneys not to spend money they got from a legal settlement with the city of Memphis.

Shelby County Chancellor Arnold Goldin has dissolved an order that would have required former MLGW president and CEO Joseph Lee and his attorneys not to spend money they got from a legal settlement with the city of Memphis.

With the predictability of a boomerang, Joseph Lee’s legal fee situation never seems to go away and keeps coming back to where it started.

At the Memphis City Council meeting Aug. 18, the body is scheduled to approve Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division’s payment of more than $426,000 to the city of Memphis. That amount from the city-owned utility company is to reimburse the city what it recently paid to settle a lawsuit the former MLGW president and CEO filed last year.

Eight blocks lie between the Shelby County Courthouse and Beale Street.

The courthouse’s seated representations of wisdom, justice, liberty and authority look southward toward the entertainment district. Sometimes, if the wind is blowing in the right direction, you can hear the band in Handy Park from the courthouse steps.

One of three separate Chancery Court cases involving control of the Beale Street Entertainment District has been transferred to the special judge handling the largest and oldest case.

Chancellor Arnold Goldin Thursday ordered the transfer of the case in which Performa Entertainment sued the city of Memphis over the city’s attempt to declare Performa in default of its lease on Handy Park. The city sent notice in December it was canceling the 10-year lease as Performa tried to renew it for another 10 years.

The Beale Street Merchants Association has joined the thickening legal fray over the finances of the entertainment district.

The association filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Chancery Court against the city of Memphis, according to The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com. It came as the city’s attorney accused the district’s manager, Performa Entertainment, of “hiding behind” a protective order in another lawsuit.

The Beale Street Merchants Association has joined the thickening legal fray over the finances of the entertainment district.

The association filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Chancery Court against the city of Memphis, according to The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com. It came as the city’s attorney accused the district’s manager, Performa Entertainment, of “hiding behind” a protective order in another lawsuit.

The tangle of lawsuits surrounding the Beale Street Entertainment District has grown in the past month. The litigation frenzy has also extended to the Lee’s Landing development on the south side of the Beale Street block between Second and Third streets.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has let the attorney for Forest Hill Cemeteries and Funeral Home owner Clayton Smart off the hook for asserting his client’s Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

That is the prospect the Shelby County Election Commission will address at a special meeting this afternoon.

Local election officials disqualified Memphis City Schools board member Stephanie Gatewood from running for re-election on the Nov. 4 ballot because she failed to file a campaign finance report by the Aug. 21 qualifying deadline for school board candidates. Gatewood had no challengers.

A coin toss was performed during a recent hearing in Shelby County Chancery Court that was intended to solve a logistical dispute in a high-profile case brought late last year by real estate developer Rusty Hyneman.

Editor's Note: In May 2008, a Chancery Court lawsuit over the wrong barcodes on items at AutoZone stores has been settled and dismissed. The claim by Autozone and the counter claim by Mizco were settled in May and the consent order for dismissal was signed by Chancellor Arnold B. Goldin. No terms of the settlement were disclosed.

During the third quarter of this year, AutoZone Parts Inc. filed a breach of contract complaint against New York-based Mizco International and the company's CEO, Albert Mizrahi, and vice president of operations, Sam Mizrahi.

AutoZone is seeking $3 million in compensatory damages and the reimbursement of $115,000 in labor costs, in a case where AutoZone accused Mizco International of intentionally taking actions outside of what was spelled out in an August 2006 vendor agreement.

The suit, which was filed in Shelby County Chancery Court, was just one of the 51 breach of contract complaints filed in the quarter, according to The Daily News Online, www.memphisdailynews.com.

In breach

Though the number of third quarter breach of contract filings in Chancery Court remained relatively unchanged when compared to the same quarter last year, breach of contract filings in Shelby County Circuit Court almost doubled. In Q3 2007, 214 breach of contract suits were filed, up considerably from the 121 filed during the same period last year.

The filings have jumped because more people are having difficulty paying debts such as furniture or credit card bills, said Van Sturdivant, chief administrator of Shelby County Circuit Court.

"When the economy goes south and people have a hard time making ends meet, the companies end up coming in and filing civil suits against them to try and get their money," Sturdivant said.

Disagreement

Mizco International is a supplier of multiple products including cellular phone accessories such as chargers, cases, headsets and other products.

In the suit, AutoZone claimed Mizco violated the terms of their vendor agreement when it shipped mislabeled products to various AutoZone locations. In September, AutoZone officials said they noticed some of the items shipped from Mizco were improperly labeled.

"When scanned by the cashier, the earphones would ring up as if they were an FM radio, and the customer would be charged the FM radio price," AutoZone officials claimed in the suit.

"Mizco had intentionally mislabeled products because it had run out of some of the products that AutoZone ordered. Mizco chose to fill AutoZone's orders with different products labeled as if they were the products that had been ordered," the suit alleges.

Burch, Porter & Johnson PLLC filed the suit on behalf of AutoZone. There haven't been any new developments in the case as of yet, said Burch Porter attorney Jef Feibelman.

The majority of case types filed in the court continues to be divorce, divorce with children, auto accidents and breach of contract. Auto accident cases edged to the forefront of Circuit Court filings, representing 21.2 percent of all cases filed in Circuit Court. Auto accidents numbered 277 in Q3 2006, making up 16.3 percent of filings.

Other types of cases filed in Circuit Court include workman's compensation, personal injury and appeals from Shelby County General Sessions Court.

Some case types, such as divorce and divorce with children cases, can be heard in either Circuit Court or Shelby County Chancery Court.

In Q3 this year, 185 divorce cases - with 105 of those being divorce with children petitions - were filed in Chancery Court. That number is slightly down from 197 filed in the same period last year.

Other filings in Chancery Court include adoptions, which climbed to 84 in Q3, compared with 50 filed during the same period in 2006.

The total number of Q3 filings in Chancery Court was 646, up 8.4 percent from Q3 2006 and Q2 2007, both of which came in at 596 filings.

Despite the fluctuations in certain case types at Circuit Court last quarter, the overall number of cases remained steady, something Sturdivant said is typical with the court.

"Unless there's something going on legislatively, there usually aren't any big changes or noticeable trends in filings," he said. "And, of course, it just depends on who needs to file a case at that time."

Filings in Shelby County Probate Court also remained steady last quarter, with 310 filings compared to 324 filed in the same period in 2006. In Q2, 306 cases were filed in Probate Court. Cases filed in Probate Court include wills, administrations, conservatorships and guardianships.

The number of civil filings in the Memphis office of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee fell nearly 28 percent to 183 from 254 in Q3 2006 and fell 29 percent from 258 in Q2 2007, according to the court's electronic document filing system. Those numbers include civil cases that were opened or re-opened during the quarter.

State investigators and the court-appointed receiver of Forest Hill cemeteries and funeral homes began to meet some resistance this week in their civil cases against those who allegedly embezzled more than $20 million from the cemetery trust funds.

Forest Hill cemeteries owner Clayton Smart has the money to hire attorneys to represent him on criminal charges. But he’s not likely to get out of jail any time soon.

Chancellor Arnold Goldin Wednesday found Smart in contempt of a court order as he approved the use of up to $120,000 from the sale of one of Smart’s homes in Oklahoma. Goldin ruled Smart is in contempt for having his wife, Nancy, sell the house without court approval.